Guided By Voices and Beirut are headlining Brooklyn’s Northside Festival this year, held June 16-19 in the neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Sharon Van Etten, Surfer Blood, Wavves, Iceage, Sensual Harassment, Theophilus London, Twin Sister, Takka Takka, Houses, Grooms and dozens more are set to perform on stages at venues across the two ‘hoods.

Individual tickets to headlining shows can be purchased, as well as four-day passes. All shows are all-ages.

Northside alum Class Actress gave us the skinny on Greenpoint, lovingly referred to as “urban suburbia.”

I don’t know about you, but when I think of The Bachelor’s Jake Pavelka, professional crazy person Heidi Montag, Sopranos’ “Big Pussy” Vincent Pastore, ex-hooker Ashley Dupre and Real Housewife Danielle Staub, the phrase “foodie” isn’t the first that springs to mind.

VH1 is testing the waters with a new food reality show called Famous Food, starring these fun-loving, er, foodies as they struggle to launch an L.A. restaurant (named Famous Foods) with restaurateurs Mike Malin and Lonnie Moore.

The usual challenges involving concept, marketing, menu and design will most likely be met with the usual C-star antics.

Oh, and for anyone who thinks Heidi is too fancy to work in the food world, step. Girlfriend put in mad time behind the counter at Taco Bell back in the day.

The reality star joined Ryan Seacrest to talk about the show, which also includes Three 6 Mafia’s Juicy J and DJ Paul. Hear the interview here.

Eminem, Foo Fighters and Muse will headline the 2011 Lollapalooza, held August 5-7 in Chicago’s Grant Park.

Other artists set to perform include deadmau5, Cee Lo Green, Arctic Monkeys, Ween, Damien “Jr.” Gong and Nas, Lykke Li, Cage the Elephant, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Titus Andronicus, Mayer Hawthorne, Friendly Fires and plenty more. Girl Talk is also booked for the ever-expanding DJ stage as well.

Three-day tickets are available on the Lollapalooza website, where you can also create a custom schedule.

Cage the Elephant joined us on a sunny patch of grass and told us about their favorite fests. Lollapalooza makes the cut.

Chromeo, the Arab-Jewish duo from Canada (one of whom looks like a member of Duran Duran circa 1984 on a juice cleanse, and the other like Ice T and ZZ Top’s jolly little love child), just weighed in on one of the food world’s long-standing geographical foodie grudges: Montreal vs. New York bagels.

Montreal, 1. New York? Nil.

Montreal bagels, long-touted as less salty with a smoke and honey flavor and arguably truer Jewish roots, rolled into town via the cult fave Mile End last year, and New Yorkers haven’t been quite as confident in their carb-laden bona fides since.

And now this. Sensitive readers, avert your eyes.

“Montreal bagels are full of finesse and sophistication,” said Dave 1 (who clearly has a pro-Canadian agenda). “It feels like you can taste every sesame seed. You can eat four or five. You eat one New York bagel and you can’t go to the bathroom for six weeks.”

Oh no, he didn’t. Watch and weep at Rolling Stone, here.

Here We Go Magic are set to deliver The January EP on May 10 via Secretly Canadian. Produced by Jen Turner and recorded live to analog tape in a band-built living room studio, the new material was created around the same time as their last full-length, Pigeons. Download a track from the six-song EP, “Hands in the Sky.”

The band are also touring for two months starting in May, and will be assisted by a rotating cast of bands throughout the dates, including Aroara, Caveman, Citizenship, Porcelain Raft, NT, Bizi Gara, tUnE-yArDs and Buke & Gass.

Check out our discussion with the band on how improvisation techniques make a great live show.

The 17th annual North by Northeast Music Festival and Conference features Devo, The Descendents, Stars and The Pharcyde June 13-19, 2011 in Toronto. Art Brut, Deerhoof, Shad, The Dodos, Juliana Hatfield, Hot Water Music, Bouncing Souls, AIDS Wolf and many more are also scheduled to play.

NXNE also boasts film and interactive branches, with 75 interactive conference sessions and 40 films being screened, including Color Me Obsessed, the first documentary on The Replacements. Tickets are on sale now.

Juliana Hatfield, who’s teaming up with old friend Evan Dando at NXNE, dropped by our studio to chat about fellow musician and great inspiration Henry Rollins.

The 2011 New Orleans Jazz Fest has released its menu, and it’s only fitting that the vittles will be as ambitious and eclectic as the rest of the line-up.

The 10-day cultural mosh pit of musicians, cooks and artisans–inspired by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington’s impromptu and legendary 1970 post-Louisiana Heritage Fair revelry–has cranked it up a notch this year.

Scheduled for April 29-May 1 and May 5-8 with a motley crew of musicians like Arcade Fire, Willie Nelson, Maceo Parker and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, the fest is also hosting the biggest, baddest celebration of Haitian culture in America since that region’s devastating quake.

The festival’s food has always been leagues above the usual outdoor fests (cochon de lait po-boys, alligator pies and crawfish Monica, anyone?), but this year foodies are already licking their chops over boudin balls, pheasant quail and andouille gumbo, mocha mousse, cracklins, jama-jama and dibbi.

To get us up to speed, Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding stopped by our studio to give us a history lesson in jazz: